21 Questions
by Echo101
Summary: On the ride to Vegas, Seth and Jack play 21 Questions.


"So how old are you guys anyways?" Jack asked Seth. The two were the only ones awake. Sarah and the dog were asleep, Sarah lying on the dog. The sky seemed to have many stars, and Jack kept looking up at them, wondering where Seth and Sarah had come from. The glow of the dashboard illuminated Jack's face. He could distantly make out Sin City, but barely. It was like the lights of his home were taunting him, saying he couldn't come back because he was an outcast.

Seth stirred lightly. He had been leaning against the window, for lack of a better pillow. "I'm 32 years by our planet. Sarah's 28."

_Okay. Not to self, ask them to say it in Earth terms._ Jack thought. Out loud, he said, "And in Earth years that would be…"

"16. Sarah would be 14." Seth shook his head. "Why, what were you expecting?"

Jack chuckled. "Well, if you are aliens, how did you learn to speak English."

Seth looked at him. "Why are you asking questions of us?"

"You're aliens. Unknown." Jack said like that explained everything. He glanced at Seth's face in the rearview mirror. He sighed. "Well, I don't really know you. You're young, but you talk like you're a college professor."

"But we're not." Seth said in confusion.

"Exactly." Jack thought for a moment. "Want to play 21 questions?"

Seth cocked his head. "What is that? A form of gaining knowledge?"

Jack laughed. "No. I ask a question, then you ask a question. We keep going until we reach 21 questions each."

Seth considered it. "Sounds fair." He relented. "I suppose it is my question now."

Jack thought for a moment. "Guess it is."

"Why are you a cab driver?"

"I don't know what it's like on your planet," Jack began slowly, "but I had a rough childhood. In and out of juvie, a prison," He added hastily as he saw Seth's mouth open, "and I went through foster homes, like adopted families kind of thing. So anyways, a guy named Wolf come up to me. Asks me if I want to drive around drugs to his customers. I agreed. Kept doing till about…2 years ago. I had one last bust, then decided to go clean. Not do anything bad. And Dominic needed a cab driver, so there I was." Seth nodded quietly. "My turn. How did you learn English?"

Seth looked at Jack in surprise. "TV." When Jack continued to look confused, Seth explained. "Our government realized that your planet had sentiment beings on it. They then created a dish that was able to receive your transmissions." He sat for a moment. "We receive them through wormholes." He added almost inaudibly.

"Wormholes? They're in space, right?"

Seth sighed. "They're everywhere. Isn't it my turn?"

"Yes it is."

"Why are you so small?"

"Excuse me?" Jack turned around in his seat. "I'm taller than you."

Seth stared him down. "I meant on the inside. You are not brave."

"Well," Jack fidgeted. "I've had a rough life."

"You've said that before." Seth said coldly. "Maybe it's something else.

Jack swallowed. He knew what it was. It was the fact that picking up strange things often led him to trouble, like prison. He glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Seth's eyes were full of curiosity. "If you really want to know…I did some bad things. I did some stuff, some bad stuff, and I ended up in jail."

Seth nodded. "That is why you are guarded."

Jack shrugged. "I guess. My turn. What's it like, on your planet?"

Seth turned his head and stared out the window. His gaze was unfocused, and his eyes seemed troubled. His forehead creased. "We are what people on our planet call identical solar systems. The only difference is that we are 500 years ahead of you." He sighed. "Our planet was once beautiful. It had oceans and lakes and meadows. We took it for granted. We thought the sky would always be blue, that the clouds would be white and plants would be purple."

"Purple?" Jack interrupted.

"Yes." Seth turned to look at him. "I use the word plants for lack of a better word. As I was saying, we took everything for granted. Eventually, after a century of neglect, we rendered our atmosphere unbreathable. The plants were dead by then. We have to go out wearing oxygen masks. We don't go out much though. The atmosphere burns our skin. Sarah and I don't really have friends." Jack looked at Seth in surprise. "We were all alone, in the middle of nowhere. Our parents taught us everything we knew." Jack was surprised by this. He had thought that they could be a family, him, Seth, and Sarah. He didn't know they had a family waiting for them. "Eventually, our parents were jailed, as you say, and we were forced to flee." Seth finished. Jack heard a sniff, and realized that Seth was crying. Seth, the infinitely stronger sibling. The one who decided where to go and what to do. The one who _never_ showed emotion.

Jack cleared his throat awkwardly. "It's okay. I lost my parents at a young age too." He glanced at Seth in the mirror and saw his red eyes. "I know it hurts, but you know what." He turned around to look at Seth. "It'll be okay. You just gotta keep reminding yourself of that. You weren't responsible. It just happened. It's not your fault."

Seth nodded, his eyes blurry. He pulled his knees up to his chest. "It's just…if they were jailed for something they researched, how good is our planet?" He studied the landscape outside with troubled eyes. "I keep asking myself that. Sometimes I want to cry." He admitted. "I have to be strong for Sarah though. She's my little sister." He shuddered. "I keep thinking that maybe Sarah and I might have a good life here. Then we wouldn't have to worry."

Concern flashed over Jack's features. "Isn't there anyone else?"

Seth shook his head. "No. Like I said, we are not social."

Jack sighed. "Why are you like humans? I mean, you walk, talk and act and act like us. You're even picking up the language."

"Dialect." Seth corrected.

Jack cracked a smile. "Still as formal as ever. But, seriously. Why do you look like humans?"

"Remember when I said we were what our people called identical solar systems?"

"Yeah." Jack wondered where the conversation was leading.

"We have the same kinds of planets. Our biggest planet is Mynar, composed of helium and hydrogen. Our planet, Tutir, is the 3rd from our sun. The only difference is that we were created 500 years prior to yours." Seth explained.

"So, our solar systems are identical?" Jack asked.

"Not only in their composition, but their history. We too have a storm on Mynar. The Yellow Spot, as we call it. We also had a similar species to your dinosaur, the twernoks. They died off 60 million years before the first-humans, I guess you would call it-evolved."

"Okay…I guess."

They were both silent for a moment. "How many questions has it been?" Seth asked.

Jack chuckled. "I don't know, Seth. I don't know."


End file.
